The cost for hospital readmissions within 30 days of discharge is estimated to be close to $25 billion per year in the U.S. Patients with diabetes are frequently admitted to the hospital. Unfortunately, many of them experience high risk of re-hospitalization or even death after discharge because of factors like hypoglycemia, or low blood glucose.

For the nationwide cohort study, researchers examined 843,978 admissions of patients with diabetes at the Veteran Affairs hospitals over a 14-year period to determine the readmission and mortality rates.